The Most Secure Browser?

 

An important question keeps on coming up especially from newcomers in the field looking to protect themselves when conducting online investigations. What is the “best” browser for investigators?

Firstly, we have a step-by-step guide to increase your online anonymity and security in our Resource Center. We breakdown the many things you can do to protect yourself online.

Secondly, always keep in mind that as long as you're connected to the internet there is no way to protect yourself 100%. You can only minimize the risk.

 

Browser Choices

The “Best" browser is impossible to answer because everyone has various preferences. What we can say is try to avoid using Google Chrome, Microsoft Explorer and Safari. Although they offer a great user experience they are notorious for gathering data on its users. As investigators you want to stay as anonymous as possible. As of right now, we do like, use and recommend the Brave browser .  Not only is it extremely fast, it also has several built-in security features to protect your privacy and it automatically blocks those annoying pop-up ads and it's free.

Firefox is another great option because it is also geared towards the privacy conscious. But, unlike the Brave browser that has all the required security features already installed, with Firefox you need to install these separately and adjust the security settings. See list of Firefox add-ons below.

 

Browsers

• Brave (recommended)
• Firefox (If you use Firefox, ensure that you install the below free add-ons)
• Tor Browser (Another great option but might be a little slow for most users)

 

Firefox add-ons

• HTTPS Everywhere  - produced as a collaboration between The Tor Project and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. HTTPS Everywhere encrypts your communications with many major websites, making your browsing more secure.
• Privacy Badger  - is a free browser add-on that stops advertisers and other third-party trackers from secretly tracking where you go and what pages you look at on the web.
• NoScript - this free, open source add-on allows JavaScript, Java, Flash and other plugins to be executed only by trusted web sites of your choice (e.g. your online bank).

 

We can go on for days talking about privacy tools but overall we think Brave has done a fantastic job for those who want to keep their private information, private.

Safe surfing!

---

© The above article was written by The Canadian Private Investigators Resource Center (https://cpirc.com).  Permission is hereby granted to those who wish to share or copy this article. In those instances, the following Credit Statement must be included “The above article was written by The Canadian Private Investigators Resource Center (https://cpirc.com).  Inquiries regarding The Investigator’s Journal should be directed to info@cpirc.com“